Contract dispute threatens India stars

Most of India's leading players - including Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly - face being dropped from next month's ICC Champions Trophy tournament after they refused to sign a controversial new contract last night.

India selectors will meet in Bangalore later today to pick a fresh 14-player squad for the tournament in Sri Lanka after almost the entire current squad rejected an "ambush marketing" clause in the International Cricket Council contract which bars personal endorsements that conflict with official sponsors.

The clause stops players endorsing products of rival companies 30 days either side of ICC events such as the 12-nation Champions Trophy in Colombo and the World Cup in South Africa, which starts next February.

"We reiterate that we, the players, want to represent India in the ICC Champions Trophy and all other ICC tournaments," the India squad declared in a statement issued in Leeds, where the side is preparing for Thursday's third Test. "However, the ICC will not allow us to participate without signing a contract we find unacceptable."

The Indian players - including Tendulkar, Ganguly as well as the likes of Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid - who all have significant endorsement contracts and could lose huge sums by agreeing to the ICC demand, also sent a statement to the Board for Control of Cricket for India president Jagmohan Dalmiya explaining their stand.

The issue has become a major controversy between the ICC and the cricketers with players from Australia, South Africa and West Indies also refusing to sign the contract.

The Indian board has been unsuccessfully pressing its players to agree to the contract on an assurance that it would take up the matter with the ICC ahead of the World Cup.

But the players blamed the BCCI for not consulting them before endorsing the ICC's events contract two years ago - which now places the onus of securing players' signatures on national boards, which also must send their best sides to ICC events.

The players have also opposed the ICC contract because it would run until 2007.

The ICC has said it will not back down, but its chief executive Malcolm Speed flew into India earlier today to find a way out of the impasse that could jeopardise the Colombo tournament, which starts on September 12, and threaten sponsorship if big names are absent.

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